Alexandria
by Evelyn Broad (age 10)
Chapter 1
I am going to tell you a story, not the usual ones like most stories full of fairies, but one about a normal girl called Alexandria. She lived on a normal street, lived in a normal house, had normal clothes, and thought she was quite a normal person. The only thing not normal was that she lived in Pompeii and had a horse called Bouncy.
Most people hated Pompeii with the boiling hot weather and a volcano right next to it as if it were about to explode. But all the kids loved it, it was unpredictable, unlike the adults who you can always predict what they say, like “Don’t touch that dear” or “Please darling, wait a minute”. All the kids knew that they loved Pompeii more than anything in the world; its thrill of adventure and fear made the children’s hearts burn.
Occasionally, you could hear the screaming of a kid wailing to their mother, “Let me stay Mummy, please!” and their mother’s answer of “Darling, we’ll find a place way better than dangerous Pompeii,” and then the wailing would carry on until the mother got fed up and dragged their kid over to the airport.
Alexandria had been dreading they might have to leave Pompeii, but so far, her mum had not taken much interest in leaving.
Mayor Money had been acting strange all weekend, not strange strange, but strange enough to make the kids wonder. He was nervous about something; he had an uncertain smile when he greeted them, instead of the big whooping smile. But none of the kids took very much notice until today ….
Chapter 2
Alexandria woke up in the morning feeling tired. It had been a late night last night. She stretched out and felt a tiny bit of her body feel the late autumn breeze. She shivered and stuck her leg in again. She saw Bouncy, her horse, stick his nuzzle out of the stable door and look eagerly past to see if anything or anyone might be her. She laughed and, braving the cold, she leaped out of bed, threw her clothes on herself, and rushed to the bathroom, only pausing to throw some icy water on her hair.
She slid down the stairs and threw open the door to the living room. She bolted through the door to the stables, ignoring her parents’ calls of “Hello!” and “Good Morning!” She crashed into the groom/stable hand, Jefferson, ignoring too his cry of surprise. She dashed past, counting the stalls until finally reaching stall number 13, where Bouncy’s nuzzle stuck out and gave a neigh of joy once she got to him.
“Hi boy, you know it is a big day today, don’t you?” She fussed over him. He stuck his nose in her pocket to see if she had got any treats of some kind. Gently, she pushed his nose away from her. She did not want to encourage any bad habits, even cute ones! “Sorry, no snacks until we have finished the day.” But as his black velvety nose went again into her pocket, her determination melted away. “Okay, maybe just one.” She fed him the horse biscuit and then took him out of the stable. She led him to an empty space and then swung herself on (she was used to getting on bareback). She tightened up the reins and then set off at a slow canter.
She set off to the main square and galloped through to the centre, ignoring the cries of the stall holders. Something had caught her eye … A poster, but not just any poster; this poster held the fate of the whole town.
*
Later that evening, Alexandria asked casually, “So are you guys going to the meeting tonight?”
Her parents exchanged a glance before saying, “Yes, we are going tonight.” And then afterwards, “Why?”
“Oh, I just want to know,” she replied breezily. Then headed back upstairs to her bedroom before her parents asked what she was up to.
Chapter 3
Later that night, Alexandria waited for the clock to strike ten o’clock. The clock struck ten o’clock as soon as she had thought it. Sneaking quietly down the stairs, she opened the back door. She crept out of the door and counted the stalls until reaching stall number 13. She opened the stable door and grabbed Bouncy’s reins.
“Hi boy. Ready to go?” she said to him.
He surprised her and he replied by saying “Yes, I’m raring to go!”
“I didn’t know you could talk!” she gasped.
“There are a lot of things you do not know about me!” he replied.
Getting over her surprise, she swung over her legs, tightened the reins, and squeezed her legs, slowly turning him over to a gallop along the sands.
*
Soon she arrived, and everyone was speaking quietly, but the whispers died down. Mayor Money appeared in his gold suit, the colour and flag of Pompeii. Waving his hands to ask for silence, although there was no need to, he started speaking, “Fellow town citizens, I trust you to receive this news bravely.” Taking a deep breath, he carried on, “I am deciding whether to sell this town to a rides company for all ages. They have offered me a wonderful deal of about 60 million pounds to convert this town into … a dinosaur amusement park.”
The gasps from the crowd shook his composure a bit, but he soon recovered. “Come on, it will not be that bad! We will find another place, way better and safer!”
Finally, Mum called out, “Give it a few days before you sign the deal or make up your mind about it, Mayor Money!”
“Fine, but I will be signing the deal as soon as the clock strikes after 48 hours,” Mayor Money replied. Alexandria had never seen or heard the Mayor so angry. He continued, “Oh yes, by the way, apparently the rides company can only make this ride theme park if they have a special tool called the Hacker 2000 in their workshop. They will get back to me shortly.”
The meeting finished abruptly, and everyone left hurriedly.
Chapter 4
Alexandria woke the morning after, wondering what she had cried about the night before. Then suddenly it came back to her. Mayor Money wants to sell the town to a stupid ride company … leaving her home, having to make new friends. This was too much for her to bear; she started to cry again silently. Finally, using all her confidence up, she thought, No, I will not let Mayor Money and that horrid ride place win. Who am I? I am Alexandria. I do not let people win against me. Thinking all these wonderful thoughts, she started to pack a bag. She filled it with knickers, clothing, shoes, a book in case she got bored, and a rope just in case, then she went downstairs, raided the whole cupboard, filled up two drink bottles, and prepared to go on the journey.
Setting off on the road was harder than she expected. Everyone seemed to be awake. First, she had to carefully open the door without any creaking sound, then crawl behind the sofa, and finally make her way through the door and dash outside. But she had done it; that gave her a positive thought for the rest of the mission.
Leaning to check her horse Bouncy, she glanced at the notebook left on her rucksack, almost about to tip out. It read:
URGENT MISSION
1. Overhear the meeting (done)
2. Run away from home. (done)
3. Find the hacker 2000
4. Bring the hacker 2000 home and hide it.
Smiling, she carried on trotting with the horse and soon arrived at her destination.
Chapter 5
Approaching the entrance gates, Alexandria looked around for another entrance. There was a tiny gate at the back. She would have to leave her horse! Biting her lip, she tied the horse to a tree at the back and entered through the back gate. She found that there was a door there slightly open. She would have to make a dash for it. Looking around properly for the first time, she saw that there were only two workers around. She scolded herself for being over-cautious.
She found herself in some sort of factory room. There was steaming hot metal being loaded into a large pot. Alexandria stopped staring at the factory pots and carried on walking through. Nothing is going to stop me, nothing at all, she thought as she passed the pots. That sounded boring; the hero has got to have something to stop, otherwise it’s a boring story. So she rethought it; how about, there was nothing to stop her, except perhaps an evil worker. Yes, that sounded better.
Thinking these thoughts, she realised she had passed through and out of the factory door. Seeing large lumps of metal and other broken bits, she concluded it was a storeroom. It won’t be here, she thought. So, she passed through several more doorways until she came to the right door, which led into a room where the prized Hacker 2000 was!
Excitedly, she reached forward and tried to grasp the Hacker 2000, but an alarm siren went off. What am I going to do now? she thought desperately. Not knowing what else to do, she simply grabbed it. It felt smooth and cold. It had “Hacker 2000 — The Only One” engraved on it in capital letters. She slammed it in her rucksack and slid into the nearest doorway.
Unfortunately, everyone had heard the alarm. She dodged past people again until she finally came to a back door. She slid out of it only to find an older worker standing there. He grabbed her at once. She struggled and kicked, trying to escape. Finally, she managed to get a kick under the chin. She set off at maximum speed and soon arrived at the gate. Seeing the workers close behind, she quickly jammed the gate with a bar of metal. Running towards Bouncy, she quickly swung herself over the mare and hurried on her long journey home.
Chapter 6
One month later…
I arrived home late that night. Everything has changed; I hid the Hacker 2000 where no one could find it (I’m sorry, but I won’t tell anyone, even you!) No one can ever use that thing again.
I’ve kept the most surprising bit till last: when Mayor Money found out that the 60-million-pound deal could not be signed, he went completely off his head and started kicking things and making threats. Everyone realised that he did not care about the town or anyone in it. He will never be allowed to be a mayor ever again.
I was, of course, found to be the hero of this amazing story, the one who had dared to take the Hacker 2000 and took a risk to save the town. It sounds soppy to have a good ending, but I’ll let this one slide.
About the Author
Evelyn loves to write adventure stories and read mystery books. She is often found reading in her favourite spot on the sofa, or tapping away on the laptop in the kitchen. Evelyn loves horses and enjoys horse riding at her local stables.
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